This old crank has come up with some nutty stuff before, but this one takes the cake. Irresponsible beyond belief.
A special death squad assassinated Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on the orders of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, an Arab TV channel has reported.
“Cheney was the chief of the Joint Special Operation Command and he cleared the way for the US by exterminating opponents through the unit and the CIA. General Stanley was the in-charge of the unit,” The Nation quoted US columnist Seymour Hersh, as saying.
The US death unit killed Bhutto because she had told Al-Jazeera TV about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, Hersh said.
The US leadership did not want Osama to be declared dead. It would have raised questions about the US Army’s presence in Afghanistan, he claimed.
According to Hersh, the former Lebanese PM Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief were murdered for not safeguarding US interests and for refusing to set up US military bases in Lebanon.
I'm sure this will go over well with out "allies" in Pakistan.
By the way, The Nation they refer to is a Pakistani paper not to be confused with the far left American magazine.
Seymour also said that Rafiq Al Hariri and the Lebanese army chief were murdered for not safeguarding the US interests and refusing US setting up military bases in Lebanon. Ariel Sharon, the then prime minister of Israel, was also a key man in the plot.
More devastating news for Harry Reid and the forces of anti-Americanism.
We're the good guys, not the terrorists.
Sympathy for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and the Taliban has dropped sharply in Pakistan amid a wave of deadly violence, according to the results of a recent opinion poll.
The survey, conducted last month for the U.S.-based Terror Free Tomorrow organization, also identified the party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as the country's most popular ahead of Feb. 18 elections, and said most Pakistanis want President Pervez Musharraf to quit.
The poll suggests Pakistanis are looking to peaceful opposition groups after months of political turmoil and a wave of suicide attacks.
In the latest bloodshed, a bomber blew himself up at an opposition rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda on Saturday, killing 27 people and injuring 50.
According to the poll results only 24 percent of Pakistanis approved of bin Laden when the survey was conducted last month, compared with 46 percent during a similar survey in August.
Backing for al-Qaida, whose senior leaders are believed to be hiding along the Pakistani-Afghan border, fell to 18 percent from 33 percent.
Support for the Taliban, whose Pakistani offshoots have seized control of much of the lawless border area and have been engaged in a growing war against security forces, dropped by half to 19 percent from 38 percent, the results said.
A heart-tugging story from the terrorist lovers at Reuters brings us an inside look at Baitullah Mehsud, who apparently is a very sympathetic, simple religious man.
We're supposed to feel sorry for this pipsqueak because he suffers from diabetes and as a result, has difficulties sleeping. Maybe his prescription for Ambien ran out.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, had just consoled the father of a 16-year-old suicide bomber when he spoke of his religious compulsion to drive American forces out of Pashtun tribal lands.
"I know very well the military might of America, and that fighting with America is like banging my head against a wall," said Mehsud, his dark eyes gleaming beneath a black turban.
"But my religion compels me to fight against the occupiers until the last drop of my blood," he said, according to a witness among the scores of kinsmen and fighters who had assembled to commemorate the boy's martyrdom for the cause.
That was in August, 2006, in the village of Khaisor in South Waziristan, just a few days after Shoaib, the son of a cleric, had rammed his truck into a convoy of Western troops in the Afghan village of Nawe Adda in Paktika province.
Two months ago, Mehsud was declared Emir of the Taliban in Pakistan. Yet in 2005 a Pakistani general had called him "a soldier of peace" for signing a peace deal that brought a short-lived lull in the conflict in South Waziristan.
Intelligence officials say he's been behind a wave of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities since the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque in July to crush a militant movement.
But it was when Pakistani officials named him as the prime suspect in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27 that Mehsud's notoriety rocketed.
And, clearly, made him a rock star to the folks at Reuters.
In a recent interview with al Jazeera, Mehsud said he had met Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq.
Nice to see Al Jazeera, a favorite media outlet of U.S. Democrats, has such easy access to this monster.
According to the Friday Times magazine, Mehsud is financed by al Qaeda and Afghan and Pakistani businessmen in the United Emirates.
Despite this pedigree, Brigadier Mahmood Shah, former chief of security in the tribal areas, says he is unimpressive.
"He is not much of a man, inconsistent government policy has made him so important."
But Shah says Mehsud possesses qualities that have allowed him to assemble a heavily armed following.
"He is very clever, he is very cool-minded, he is very calculating. He is not a jumpy character."
Of course, Reuters must humanize the poor fellow.
Abdul Karim Mehsud, a lawyer in Peshawar who comes from the same tribe, said he hadn't seen his clansman for six years, but recalls a simple person, quite religious, but an avowed jihadi driven by desire to liberate Afghanistan, where he had fought.
"He's a diabetic and he doesn't sleep well because of the diabetes," the lawyer said.
Maybe a few Hellfire missiles could help cure his sleeping woes.
Meanwhile, another suspected potential suicide bomber has been nabbed in Pakistan. I hope this doesn't keep Mehsud awake with worry.
Police in Pakistan on Sunday arrested a suspected teenage suicide bomber from a restive northwestern town and were still searching for two alleged accomplices, officials said.
The arrest was made in the village of Abdul Khel in Dera Ismail Khan district, home to pro-Taliban opposition leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who is said to be on a militant hit list, the officials said.
"Police have arrested a young boy suspected of being a suicide bomber," senior police official Sarfraz Khan told AFP.
"Police are looking for two other suspects."
It also appears the poor guy who can't sleep may realize his days are numbered and is seeking a truce. If the Pakis are stupid enough to go for this, they're dumber than I though.
Baitullah Mehsud has offered to stop his anti-government activities if the government releases all the Taliban leaders arrested till date, reported a private TV channel on Saturday.
According to the report, Mehsud has signalled the possibility of talks with the government. The sources revealed that the government had received a message from Baitullah Mehsud through his close companions. The offer by Baitullah Mehsud has come at the time when the government is claiming that the security forces are planning another large-scale operation.
A teenager who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.
The teen also confessed to taking part in a plot to attack Shiites during Ashoura, even as police in Pakistan's far south said they had foiled suicide attacks planned for the Shiite Muslim festival.
In Karachi, police chief Azhar Farouqi said officers detained five men who were in the possession of explosives, detonators and a small quantity of cyanide intended for attacks on this week's Ashoura processions.
"With these arrests we have foiled major attacks," Farouqi said.
The intelligence official said the 15-year-old told investigators that the five-person squad was dispatched to Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader with strong ties to al-Qaida and an alliance with the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan, on Afghanistan's northwest border.
The senior official from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the teen was arrested Thursday and was involved in a plot to attack Shiites during an Ashoura festival on Sunday.
Pakistan's Sunni extremists, who regard Shiites as heretics, often attack the community during Ashoura. On Thursday, 11 people died and 20 were injured in a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
A senior district police officer in Dera Ismail Khan, a town 168 miles southwest of Islamabad, confirmed the teen's arrest there and said the suspect made "a sensational disclosure." The officer also asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
In the capital, Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesman Jawed Iqbal Cheema said he had no information about any arrests in the border area, or about any new developments in the Bhutto case.
Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a purported spokesman for Mehsud, denied his group had links with the teen, and said he had not been dispatched by Mehsud to kill Bhutto.
"It is just a government propaganda," he said. "We have already clarified that we are not involved in the attack on Benazir Bhutto."
Bhutto, a former prime minister, died on Dec. 27 when one member of the squad, whom the teen allegedly identified as Bilal, fired at her and detonated an explosive vest as Bhutto was leaving a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, which is adjacent to Islamabad. The blast killed at least 20 other people and wounded scores more.
The PPP says the US and Pakistani spy agencies are the number one suspects behind the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
"Her assassination is calculated. Her killing is a fascist act. US Central Intelligence agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) should shoulder responsibility for her assassination," Amanullah Khan, a Britain-based leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said on Wednesday night, the Times of India reported.
He added Bhutto was longing to go back to Pakistan in her effort to restore democracy there but was 'deceived and stabbed in the back by the CIA and ISI'.
Meanwhile, Khalid Mahmood, a Labor MP, has said Bhutto knew the threat to her life but the 'West cajoled and forced her to return to Pakistan.'
I'll give them this much: We never should have recommended she return to Pakistan; that much is obvious.
But the notion the CIA somehow was behind her assassination is absurd. At least it'll give the crackpot conspiracists on the left something new to babble about.
I know it's been popular the last day or so to point to the Bhutto killing and then to the stock market and try to draw connections. Believe, me, the stock market drop has much more to do with market fundamentals and very little to do with politics around the world.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Stocks declined on Friday, giving up their earlier gains, after a disappointing report on new home sales for November rekindled concerns about the U.S. economy and the housing crisis. The DOW fell 55 points, or 0.4%, to 13,303. Earlier, the Dow hit an intraday high of 13,451.38.
The Dow is on track for a yearly gain of 7%, the S&P for a gain of 4% and the Nasdaq for a rise of 10.7%.
The new home sales report was "the turning point and pushed it [the market] lower," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of the U.S. equity group at Deutsche Bank. "The number was quite a bit weaker than expected."
So the market drop is due to the underlying fundamentals, not to the tragic death of Bhutto.
I started noticing it yesterday. When news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto begin spreading through out the world we heard immediately from the leaders of Europe and Asia but the Middle East was silent. I have gone searching for news again today and the only Muslim country I have found that has come out and condemned the killing is Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, who met Bhutto earlier on Thursday in Islamabad, said he was "deeply pained" by the assassination of "this brave sister of ours, a brave daughter of the Muslim world."
From AFP we have this pointing to the most populace Muslim country Indonesia, which is also on the Indian sub-continent.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, called Bhutto's murder "a severe blow to Pakistan's democratic process" and expressed his hope that "the law be upheld and democracy be respected in Pakistan."
Folks sometimes you can learn as much about somebody by what they don't say as you can what they do say. So where are the Middle Eastern countries in their condemnation of this killing? Where is Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and even Iraq?
Well, they've already claimed responsibility, so this isn't a stunner, but new details are emerging in the murder of Benazir Bhutto. Things seem to get murkier, however.
Pakistan's interior ministry has said it has clear evidence al-Qaeda was behind the assassination.
It quoted intelligence intercepts in a briefing to reporters that followed a reported claim of responsibility by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
It said Ms Bhutto had died of a fracture in her neck and had not been hit by either bullets or shrapnel, as reported earlier when a gunman attacked her car at an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
As Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest today, confusion still reigns as to who actually arranged the hit.
Eli Lake in the New York Sun reports it may have been military snipers.
American and Pakistani military leaders are seeking to account for what may be renegade commando units from the Pakistani military's special forces in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
The attack yesterday at Rawalpindi bore the hallmarks of a sophisticated military operation. At first, Bhutto's rally was hit by a suicide bomb that turned out to be a decoy. According to press reports and a situation report of the incident relayed to The New York Sun by an American intelligence officer, Bhutto's armored limousine was shot by multiple snipers whose armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle, hitting the former premier five times in the head, chest, and neck. Two of the snipers then detonated themselves shortly after the shooting, according to the situation report, while being pursued by local police.
A separate attack was thwarted at the local hospital where Bhutto possibly would have been revived had she survived the initial shooting. Also attacked yesterday was a rival politician, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister who took power after Bhutto lost power in 1996.
A working theory, according to this American source, is that Al Qaeda or affiliated jihadist groups had effectively suborned at least one unit of Pakistan's Special Services Group, the country's equivalent of Britain's elite SAS commandos. This official, however, stressed this was just a theory at this point. Other theories include that the assassins were trained by Qaeda or were from other military services, or the possibility that the assassins were retired Pakistani special forces.
"They just killed the most protected politician in the whole country," this source said. "We really don't know a lot at this point, but the first thing that is happening is we are asking the Pakistani military to account for every black team with special operations capabilities."
Lost in the rapidly developing story was this item I first noted before Bhutto was pronounced dead.
Around 4,000 additional police personnel and commandos have been called for security arrangements after intelligence agencies and the federal government warned of possible terror attacks on Benazir Bhutto.
Extraordinary security arrangements have also been made around the Rawalpindi city, Liaquat Bagh and the Islamabad International Airport. Bunkers and check posts have also been set up at different places in the city and walkthrough gates would be installed at entry points of Liaquat Bagh.
Entry to the public rally premises will only be allowed after complete identification and thorough checking. Police personnel in civvies will also patrol the nearby areas and hotels to guard against any terrorist activity. ... Police personnel would also be deputed on rooftops of the nearby buildings. Under the security arrangements, no one, including party activists, will be allowed to come near the vehicle of Benazir Bhutto.
Well, judging by the photos and video shown Thursday, there were plenty of people near Bhutto's vehicle.
Given the security procedures supposedly in place, it further makes sense that perhaps snipers did indeed perform the hit rather than anyone up close.
Meanwhile, Pakistani troops have been ordered to shoot on sight rioters and looters.
As mobs looted and set buildings on fire, paramilitary rangers were given the authority to use live fire to stop rioters from damaging property in southern Pakistan.
Major Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman, told reporters: "We have orders to shoot at sight."
However, despite fears that the election on 8 January could be put off, the country's caretaker prime minister Muhammad Soomro announced today that the government had no immediate plans to postpone it.
Meanwhile, the death toll in rioting is now up to 19.
There is a lot of wild speculation and many theories floating around and it's virtually impossible to tell for sure what happened, though it does seem clear the military there was long ago infiltrated and that alone presents many dangers as time goes on.
Note: Links have been added as they arise, so scroll down for the latest.
Bumped to the top of the page for now.
Since we've pretty much exhausted the earlier link on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, here's a new post detailing reaction via the Pakistani and world media.
We had the HuffPosters in our original link this morning (and they actually linked me--heh!), and now they're closing in on 2000 comments. Absolute moonbattery on steroids.
sparkey (See profile | I'm a fan of sparkey) Sept.11 of 2001. Bush is out of Washington. Rice is out of Washington. Cheney is at an undisclosed location. 9-11 happens. Dec.27 of 2007. Bush is out of Washington. Rice is out of Washington. Cheney is at an undisclosed location. Bhutto is killed. Anything look familiar here? Reply | posted 05:05 pm on 12/27/2007
Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was targeted in a deadly suicide bombing Thursday. Media reports quote her husband saying she suffered a bullet wound to the neck in the attack.
This is curious that she reportedly died from a bullet wound, likely meaning the suicide bomber may not have caused the wound and she was shot by someone else.
Bhutto was shot at close range as she was leaving the rally in this garrison city south of Islamabad, aides said. Immediately after the shooting, a suicide bomber detonated explosives near Bhutto's car, killing at least 15 other people.
Bhutto was rushed to a hospital with extensive wounds to her torso, her supporters said. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, an official came out of the building and told a crowd of supporters Bhutto was dead.
Also Thursday, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a different pre-election rally in Rawalpindi, leaving four dead and at least five injured.
Bhutto's death is a devastating development, coming 12 days before Pakistanis are set to vote in national parliamentary elections already marked by enormous political turmoil. President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November -- a move which he said was to combat terrorism, but which was widely perceived as an effort to stave off legal challenges to his authority. U.S. military officials said last week that the terrorist group al-Qaeda increasingly is focusing its efforts in Pakistan.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto threatens to plunge a nuclear armed Pakistan into civil war, opposition groups warned today.
The former prime minister was killed by a suicide bomber as she left a public rally in the city of Rawalpindi today.
Commentators said the killing would make the postponement of the upcoming elections almost certain and could spark further unrest.
Riaz Malik, of the opposition Pakistan Movement for Justice party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), warned: "The impact will be that Pakistan is in more turmoil - it will be the start of civil war in Pakistan.
"There is a very real danger of civil war in Pakistan."
UPDATE IV: HuffPost commenters unhinged, wish Bush and Blair who were murdered.
scampy123 (See profile | I'm a fan of scampy123) If only we could read that Bush and Blair had been blown to bits with this greedy corrupt bitch who was persuaded to return for the American style of imposed democracy. Why have the war criminals Bush and Blair have not been assasinated? Reply | posted 09:46 am on 12/27/2007
Bluedanube (See profile | I'm a fan of Bluedanube) A tragedy for democratic reform in Pakistan. A preview of what opponents to the Republican Party can expect? Reply | posted 09:40 am on 12/27/2007
UPDATE VI: Some reaction from U.S. presidential candidates. More here. Reaction here from Pakistanis in the U.S. President Bush response shown here (scroll down for video). Others weigh in here (via Hot Air).
A suicide bomber struck shortly after Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto addressed a political rally in this garrison city on Thursday, killing at least 20 people, witnesses said.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene could see body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.
Police official Abdul Karim said Bhutto had already left the area in her vehicle when the blast went off, just minutes after her speech to thousands of supporters.
Another police official, Saud Aziz, said it was a suicide attack.
Farahtullah Babar, spokesman for Bhutto party, said her vehicle was some 50 yards away from blast, just after leaving the rally venue in Rawalpindi.
This report indicates Bhutto is safe, but Fox reported a sources said that she may have been injured.
"She had just crossed the gate when we heard a deafening sound. We could feel its impact but by the grace of God she is safe," he said.
Just yesterday, police had stopped a 15-year-old carrying a bomb at a Bhutto rally.
Around 4,000 additional police personnel and commandos have been called for security arrangements after intelligence agencies and the federal government warned of possible terror attacks on Benazir Bhutto.
Extraordinary security arrangements have also been made around the Rawalpindi city, Liaquat Bagh and the Islamabad International Airport. Bunkers and check posts have also been set up at different places in the city and walkthrough gates would be installed at entry points of Liaquat Bagh.
Entry to the public rally premises will only be allowed after complete identification and thorough checking. Police personnel in civvies will also patrol the nearby areas and hotels to guard against any terrorist activity.
It apparently wasn't enough or, perhaps, there was an inside job.
Also Thursday, gunmen opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Gunmen opened fire on supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday from an office of the party that supports President Pervez Musharraf killing four Sharif supporters, police said.
It was the worst violence related to a Jan. 8 general election since campaigning began in earnest in mid-December.
Sharif was several kilometres away from the shooting and was on his way to Rawalpindi city after attending a rally.
Sharif blamed supporters of the pro-Musharraf party for the violence but a spokesman for the party denied that its workers were involved.
The shooting occurred near an office of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q).
CNN is reporting Bhutto may be in critical condition.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is said to be critically wounded following a suicide attack on a political rally in Rawalpindi, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was quoted as saying on CNN affiliate Geo TV.
As Pervez Musharraf granted himself more powers, a new plot against him by al Qaeda was revealed.
INTELLIGENCE authorities in Karachi yesterday claimed to have uncovered an al-Qa'ida plot to blow up Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as the leader granted himself sweeping new powers over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
The alleged plot was disclosed only hours before the state of emergency imposed by Mr Musharraf last month was due to be lifted.
It also coincided with the publication of a poll conducted by US Republican Party researchers that underlined the extent of Mr Musharraf's unpopularity ahead of next month's general election.
The report incorrectly notes it's the Republican Party that issued this report, when in actuality it's a group called the International Republican Institute. Whatever the case, that's a bad error.
It continues.
The poll, by the International Republican Institute and reported in The New York Times, suggests 67 per cent of Pakistanis want Mr Musharraf to resign immediately and 70 per cent say that his Government does not deserve re-election.
It also found that Washington and London's hopes for a power-sharing alliance between Mr Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is opposed by 60 per cent of Pakistanis.
The poll's main findings confirm assessments attributed to Pakistan's intelligence agencies that while the branch of the Pakistan Muslim League aligned with Mr Musharraf may emerge as the largest single party in the election, Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's own branch of the PML will do well, with hardline religious parties holding the balance of power.
Yesterday, Mr Musharraf passed a law granting himself ultimate control over the country's National Command Authority, which is in charge of all aspects of the country's nuclear arsenal and use of its nuclear technology.
The assassination plot, it was claimed, was to blow up an entire bridge on the city's Drig Road that would be used by Mr Musharraf on a visit to Karachi.
Pakistani news agencies quoted officials as saying the plot involved a fall-back plan for two follow-up attacks in case the first attempt to kill Mr Musharraf failed.
They said interrogation of suspects involved in the alleged plot had revealed plans for attacks on foreign diplomatic missions, and last night security on these and other strategic buildings across Pakistan was significantly increased.
Mr Musharraf, 64, has survived a series of attempts on his life since he seized power in 1999, the last being in July when an anti-aircraft gun was fired at his aircraft as it took off from Rawalpindi.
Earlier yesterday, al-Qa'ida- and Taliban-linked suicide bombers were blamed for two separate attacks on a military checkpoint at the army garrison in Quetta, capital of the troubled province of Balochistan, which left at least 10 soldiers dead and more than 22 wounded.
Another day, another horrifying account of the sheer savagery some people will stoop to in the name of their warped ideology.
KARACHI: The Oct 19 bombing on Benazir Bhutto’s procession in Karachi which killed over 170 people, was carried out by a person who used a one-year-old child strapped with fatal bombs, sources close to the PPP leader said.
The bomber repeatedly tried to carry the child to the back of Benazir’s truck and hand over the infant to either Benazir Bhutto or any other PPP leader on the truck but something always prevented him from reaching close by.
Meanwhile, horrifying new details emerged last night of the attempt by suicide bombers to kill Ms Bhutto on her return home from exile last month.
Investigators from Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said yesterday they believed the bomb, which killed 170 people and left hundreds more wounded, was strapped to a one-year-old child carried by its jihadist father.
They said the suicide bomber tried repeatedly to carry the baby to Ms Bhutto's vehicle as she drove in a late-night cavalcade through the streets of Karachi.
"At the point where the bombs exploded, Benazir Bhutto herself saw the man with the child and asked him to come closer so that she could hug or kiss the infant," investigators were reported as saying. "But someone came in between and a guard felt that the man with the child was not behaving normally. So the child was not allowed to come aboard Benazir's vehicle."
Ms Bhutto is said to have told investigators she recalls the face of the man who was carrying the infant. She has asked to see recordings made by television news channels to try to identify the man.
This news came as Pervez Musharraf was summoned to Saudi Arabia to receive marching orders from his benefactors.
PAKISTANI military ruler General Pervez Musharraf rushed to Riyadh for crisis talks with his Saudi royal family benefactors yesterday as his emergency rule came under threat from caretaker officials ordering the release of thousands of detained political workers and lawyers.
The officials, appointed to run the country's national and provincial governments ahead of elections scheduled for January 8, were expected to do no more than maintain the status quo until the poll.
But last night, led by interim prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro, their first action involved ordering the immediate release of thousands detained in the security crackdown that followed the declaration of the state of emergency on November 3.
